Abstract Scope |
As a branch of additive manufacturing (AM), multi-material 3D printing has drawn tremendous attention as it offers more design flexibility that can combine materials with various properties. However, low cost, high-speed, high-resolution, and versatile multi-material 3D printing methods are still lacking. In this presentation, we present a new hybrid multi-material 3D printing system that consists of top-down digital light processing (DLP) printing and direct ink writing (DIW) printing to fabricate composite structures and unique devices in a single printing job. The DLP part allows for high-speed and high-resolution printing of a material matrix with complex geometry, while the DIW part enables the printing of functional materials, including liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) and conductive silver inks. With this hybrid 3D printing system, composites prototype, active soft robots, circuit-embedding architectures, and strain sensors can be successfully printed, showing a great prospect in soft robotics, electronics, active metamaterials, and biomedical devices. |